By Steve Fanucchi
Arizona Daily Wildcat
After 12 straight days off from dual match play, the UA men's tennis team was back in action this weekend.
As assistant coach Tom Hagedorn said before, Illinois was a mystery. Perhaps the real mystery came to the Wildcats on Saturday when they took on Washington.
The Wildcats battled the Fighting Illini and the fight lasted for over four hours Friday as the Wildcats came up short for their third straight loss.
"I think that the two weeks off hurt us," Coach Bill Wright said. "Watching both doubles and singles showed that we were not match-ready, but that is no excuse. We just have to come out and play tough tomorrow."
No. 7 singles player Jan Anderson continued to dominate opponents as he breezed through his match against Jerry Turek 6-2, 6-2 for his third consecutive win, upping his record to 23-9 . In the second game of the second set, Anderson seemed to have his serve working as he recorded three aces.
Junior Chris Jenkins defeated Chris DeVore 6-1, 6-2.
Edward Schwartz, who has been playing in the number five position all year long, beat Brady Blain 7-5, 6-2.
It did not seem to be enough, though, as Sten Sumberg fell to Jeremy Sutter 7-6, 6-7, 7-5, Roland Kupka was defeated by Dave Manpearl 6-4, 6-4, and James Rey was defeated by Drew Parker 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.
The Rey-Parker match featured a conflict between opponents as Parker continued to question the calls that Rey had been making during the second set of the match.
Parker, with frustration and anger, accused Rey of cheating in all possible ways. In turn, Rey was up one set and leading the second 4-1 when he got a judge to come over and watch the remainder of the match. It continued and Rey lost the next four games in a row and the match. Arizona lost by a final score of 4-3.
The Wildcats moved their record back to the .500 mark (3-3 overall, 0-2 in the Pacific 10 Conference) Saturday with a victory over the Huskies. The key for the Wildcats was winning the doubles point, something they have not done in most of their dual matches.
"We have been knocking on the door in all of our doubles matches, barely losing. Finally, we did it against the Huskies," Hagedorn said.
Leading 1-0, the Wildcats came out firing as they won the next four points and took control of the match.
Anderson beat Mark Tomandl 6-2, 6-3, Jenkins beat Scott Moore 6-3, 6-2, Schwartz defeated Toni Dapas 7-6, 6-4, and Rey defeated Richard Rosen 6-2, 3-6, 6-2.
"It is very key that we beat Washington because they are in our region," Hagedorn said.
Sumberg was in the feature match of the day against the Huskies' Ornello Arlatti. After losing 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, Sumberg stormed off the court in anger, breaking his racket on the corner of the bench. Nonetheless, the Wildcats won 5-2, ending their losing skid. As Sumberg cooled off, so will the tennis team, as Arizona will be icing its worn-out bodies after two straight days of tennis.
UA will be in Corpus Christi, Texas, next weekend for the HEB Invitational.